


Pioneer

by AXEe



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate History, Cold War, Gen, Part of my "Ultrawoman" 'verse, Space Race
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-09-14 21:04:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16920339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AXEe/pseuds/AXEe
Summary: A bittersweet "what if" about one of the first pioneers of space travel





	Pioneer

**Author's Note:**

> A bittersweet "what if" about one of the first pioneers of space travel

******

**November 3rd 1957  
The height of the Cold War…**

The object slowly circling the planet Earth was not natural. It was a small capsule, onboard, one pilot, its purpose: to see whether or not a living being could survive in the extreme environment of outer space, the pilot’s vitals were being transmitted to ground control.

Some had questioned the point of the mission, since the arrival of the Martian woman known as ‘Ultrawoman’ had clearly proven that space travel was possible, but others had been quick to point out that Ultrawoman was not Human and while her species clearly had the technology and physiology to withstand the rigors of space, Humans did not.

As the capsule orbited the planet, hour by hour, something was going wrong, the pilot’s heart rate and respiration were rapidly rising as the temperature within the small capsule rapidly rose as it orbited the planet. If she could have, the pilot would have contacted mission control to report the issue, but there was no radio onboard and so she was left seemingly to her fate.

At the fifth hour into her flight, a brilliant light suddenly surrounded her, and she vanished from the confines of the capsule. Back on Earth, ground control received no further telemetry from the pilot and concluded that she had expired from overheating and stress…

******

The pilot reappeared in a strange chamber. Confused, she shrunk back as a tall figure in gleaming blue armor approached her, reaching out towards her. Frightened, the pilot lashed out, snapping her teeth at the hand.

“Oh, you are a fiery one, aren’t you?” the alien known as Ultrawoman chuckled as she reached out and, after a moment, was allowed to stroke the dog’s ears “there’s a good girl,” she soothed as she worked the helmet off the canine “there we are,” she smiled “now, what shall we call you, hmm? I know the Soviets call you ‘Laika’, but that’s not much of a name, now is it? It just means ‘barker’, hardly original”

Tail wagging, the dog leaned forward and licked the Martian’s hand…

**END**

**Author's Note:**

> Laika has the distinction of being the first living creature in space. Launched on November 3rd 1957 by the Soviet Union, she also has the more tragic distinction of being the first creature to _die_ in space. Due to Cold War-era politics, Soviet Communist Party chairman, Nikita Khrushchev--flush with success from the USSR's launch of the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik--wanted to stage a 'space spectacular' to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. As a result, the original plan of sending an unmanned satellite into orbit and then returning it were scrapped in favor of sending a living creature into orbit, without bothering to return it. To make matters worse, Soviet scientists were only had less than four weeks to design and build a capsule that could carry a dog into space.
> 
> To make matters even worse, declassified documents revealed in 2006 that, despite initial claims made by the USSR that Laika died five days into her flight when her oxygen ran out, she actually died as early as five hours into the flight due to part of the thermal insulation coming loose, as a result the telemetry revealed that Laika most likely died from a combination of stress and overheating.
> 
> However her story does have a few bright moments, the night before the launch, Dr. Vladimir Yazdovsky, one of the scientists working on the project, took her home to play with his children, later stating in she was 'quiet and charming,...I wanted to do something nice for her. She had so little time left to live'.
> 
> One of the technicians stated that, just before they closed up the capsule, they kissed her on the nose and wish her bon voyage, knowing that she would never come back.


End file.
